Susan Penksa, an international and European security specialist and professor of political science at Westmont College, is in Brussels, Belgium, for two weeks speaking at the European Parliament and participating in the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union’s seminar on security-sector reform.
Penksa, who has an extensive consulting practice with national governments and international organizations, is also meeting with European Union, NATO and national officials as part of her ongoing research and policy-advising work.
At the European Parliament on Wednesday, Penksa spoke on U.S.-EU security relations and led an informal debate on transatlantic security challenges. On Thursday, she addressed the Subcommittee on Security and Defense about EU security operations in the Balkans. On Friday, she participated in the French Presidency seminar on security sector reform.
Penksa will speak this Wednesday at the Green Conference on the revised European Security Strategy, an event organized by her host, Minister of the European Parliament Angelika Beer of Germany.
Penksa, who received her doctorate in political science from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, will attend a special parliamentary seminar on EU-Russia relations. With 15 years of experience in Europe and the Western Balkans, Penksa is an expert on the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the European Security and Defense Policy; transatlantic security and defense; civil-military relations; the Balkans; conflict prevention; post-conflict stabilization; organized crime and terrorism; and U.S.-European threat perceptions.
Recent projects include serving as a consultant for U.S. Agency for International Development, Pakistan, on gender and economic development and her appointment as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2007-08.
Scott Craig is Westmont College‘s media relations manager.